Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Back on track after a week off from being sick

I think I mentioned previously that I had what I thought began as my typical - this time of year allergies - which turned into a nasty head cold, then traveled down to my chest. This had me down and out for over a week. Eating only scrambled eggs and chicken broth more the majority of it because once it reached my chest that was about all I was able to get down.

This broke before the weekend but I still allowed myself another couple of days rest to be sure I wasn't pushing myself and I was actually over this bug.

All was well and I was back in the gym yesterday. I did workout A of my 5X5 at the same weights that I left off with and I felt great... well rested and strong. By no means did my strength suffer and I easily could have gone +5 on all my lifts but I'm in no hurry... This was more of a test for me being out for so long. Aside from being sick, my body clearly needed the break from lifting.

I'm just going to walk today and on Wed., when I do workout B, I'll go +5 and get my mojo workin' again.

Feels great to be be back!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Rendered my first batch of beef tallow today.

It was so easy even a caveman could do it!

My butcher has a ton of beef suet (raw beef fat) in stock and I wanted to give it a shot so I bought a couple of lbs. for my first time. It was only .39 cents per lb.

I googled some info and found the easiest way to make it was the dry oven method - 2hrs. @ 250 degrees.

I took these two large slabs of frozen fat, sharpened up my butcher knife and cut it up into 1" pieces. I put a drop of water in a large oven proof pot, put the fat in there, and in the oven it went for two hours.

When it was finished, I let it cool for a bit then double filtered it through a mesh strainer lined with a triple layer of cheese cloth.

It came out perfect! Nice and clear, no odor at all (made sure to remove any traces of muscle or blood first) and the 2.25lbs. yielded exactly one pint of pure beef tallow.

Great stuff for cooking with - it's smoke point is super high @ 425 degrees and I plan on cooking some nice stir fry, all my pan seared steaks and a nice batch of seasoned chicken wings in it this week.

Ah... pure animal fat - the healthiest of them all and a fraction of the cost of buying any quality oil.

A lot of people seem to like to cook their eggs in tallow which I'll give a shot at tomorrow morning for breakfast but I might find that I like my ghee better for eggs - ya can't deny that natural butter taste with farm fresh organic eggs!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

The mission continues...

I took advantage of my down time to reevaluate my diet and fitness goals and have come up with a far more feasible daily routine. I've decided that instead of drawing up this picture in my mind of what the finish line looks like, I'm just going to live like I'm already there. I have high expectations of myself because I believe in myself. I am not a cocky person at all - I simply know that I can accomplish anything I put my mind to.

I admit that one of my faults is that I can get ahead of myself at times... I set unrealistic goals which wind up backfiring on me. This is what happened with both my food and my workouts over the past couple of weeks. I was trying to eat too much and was trying to overextend my workouts to a level that A) I'm not conditioned for and B) learned that no one is conditioned for.

I took the advice given to me and have a reduced protein intake for the upcoming week. I have also readjusted and leveled out my workout schedule. Don't get me wrong, I do not fool around in the gym - I lift as heavy as I can without chancing an injury and I always strive to add more weight - but his new plan takes a lot of pressure off my back.

This is a lifestyle that I have chosen because I have fun with it and because it enables me to increase my health and brings my fitness level to my maximum potential which is not something I have always taken advantage of throughout my life. To maintain this, I have come to the conclusion that I need to "Act as if". Meaning I'm going to live like I'm already where I want to be and just continue doing my thing like it's second nature. Otherwise, I find myself caught in the perfectionist mold of never being satisfied. This is a bad habit that I'm working to overcome. OK, that's enough of a public therapy session for me. I've had a strange and very disappointing day today and am in an even stranger mood tonight.

Tomorrow my mission shall continue - without the stresses - and I'll be back in the gym and eating clean, as always. It's time for me to put the fun back into what I've got going on here. Because quite frankly... if I don't, it sucks.

I'll update my workout and my foods tomorrow and promise to be in a better mood :)

Minor Rant

Since last Thursday I have had what I thought began as my typical - this time of year spring allergies - but it wound up escalating into more of a semi nasty head cold that has had me fairly useless for the past 4 days. In fact, I didn't even make it to the gym on Friday which is the first time I missed a workout in over a year. I also had to decline an invitation to go out on both Friday and Saturday nights because I was trying to nurse myself to Sunday where I had bigger and better plans which wound up falling apart anyway. Such as life - and my bitchin' is now complete. Sometimes ya just gotta get things off your chest and there's no place better to do this than on my own blog.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Friends are great to have!

A guy I met from an online forum that I belong to gave me some great information on how I can easily adjust my plan and continue with my progress. I'm not sure of his real name but he goes by the name Stack Diesel and for very good reason... He clearly knows his stuff when it comes to bodybuilding and I'm grateful for his advice. I'm going to paste his reply to me after reading of my struggles.

Greg,

I've always found it difficult to consume more than 140-150g of protein a day from whole food. Aside from rare occasions, I've always had to supplement with shakes to get at or over 200g/day.

That being said, and after years of protein guilt and paranoia, I do think protein needs have been exaggerated, even as to hard-training athletes. The "1g/lb. BW" rule of thumb was cooked up by a supplement company back in the early 90's and has since become gospel. I don't dispute that it's best to err on the side of caution and consume too much rather than too little, but the most credible clinical study (in my opinion) done on the protein requirements of athletes, by Dr. Lemon, suggests an intake of 1.6g/kg of BW maintains positive nitrogen balance and supports recovery and growth in hard-training athletes (assuming an otherwise energy-dense and nutritionally adequate diet). A 220lb man weights 100kg and thus would require an intake of 160g protein/day. 40g doesn't seem like a big difference but, for me, seems to be the difference between being able to meet my protein needs with whole food and having to rely on supplements. Again, I do agree that it's best to consume too much rather than too little protein, but just some food for thought.

Also, you are killing your legs 5 days a week. Although it may seem counterintuitive at first, most strength and conditioning coaches advise that sprints be performed on the same day as squats/heavy leg training, to maximize the recovery period between workouts. Walking can be done for active recovery/general physical activity on the rest days, but not to the point/pace of turning it into a full-blown conditioning session. If you are doing your 5x5 on M/W/F, I'd suggest sprints on M and F. Do the sprints after your squat workout, not before. Will this compromise sprint performance somewhat? Of course, but something's gotta give, and when you really start pushing up the weight on the squats, you are going to stall hard and fast if you are not getting adequate recovery between workouts.

-Stack

Great advice that I plan on incorporating into my routine starting with next week's schedule.

Many thanks, Stack!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Did I bite off more than I can chew?

That's what is going through my mind right now. This new plan has me eating more food than I can physically fit in my body. This is why bodybuilders, who ingest a massive amount of protein, get half their intake from whey shakes. It's a much harder task to get all your protein from whole foods than it is from knocking back a couple of shakes throughout your day.

I am still pushing forward with this mission I'm on; I'm not a wuss - however, I may have to reevaluate my plan of attack. I am not going to substitute real food with whey powder but I may go back to an egg white protein shake in place of at least one of my meat meals... probably my last one of the day. After I eat a nice steak dinner, the last thing I'm looking forward to is another 12oz. of chicken a few hours later.

I'll get it sorted out!

Another thing is my workouts - My legs are getting hammered! Yesterday, I hit the trails on my mtn. bike and had to call it quits after 3 loops including my sprints. This was 15 miles and it was only my 2nd time out on the bike this season. Let's not forget about my lifting days, on M/W/F, which have me doing heavy squats. So thinking I could pull off 4 loops of 20 miles, 2 times per week - on my "off" days - in addition to my lifting... well what was I thinking?

Yet another part of my plan that has to be reexamined. I can tell you that tomorrow, I'm just going to walk and give my wheels a rest! I'm headed off to the gym in a little while for Workout B:

Squats
Overhead Press
Deadlifts
Pull Ups
Planks

I'll think about how I'm going to adjust everything over the next few days and have it all set, with a more reasonable yet still progressive plan, for the following week. In the mean time, I'm just going to cut out that last meal of the day for the rest of the week. If anyone wants some nice tender grass fed chicken breast, c'mon over! I'll cook it any way you like it :D

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

"Build It and They Shall Come"

A big hearty welcome to my fourth follower and to those of you who have been leaving comments on my posts. I appreciate the feedback and it drives me to write more. I know that lately my posts have been leaning towards my own personal diet and fitness program rather than the low carb / primal lifestyle that I had started my blog with but the good news is I've got some really good topics in the works that I plan on writing in the upcoming week or so. I'm going to be writing on the evolution of the agricultural industry (and it's detrimental effect on the well being of the human species) and another on essential fatty acids. These two topics will be in addition to our regularly scheduled program of Greg's quest for optimal health :-)

Last night, I added a poll to the blog asking viewers to vote based on their impression of what I've been writing. So far I've only had one voter (thank you!) and I'm still alive! The poll will close at the end of the month so please take a minute and cast your vote.

Have a good day friends!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Day 1 of my 7 week mission

Today was my fist day on my new program and it went smoothly. It is, indeed, a lot of food and I still have one more meal to go! What I need to do to be successful at eating this much fat and protein is space my meals accordingly. Start early and eat one meal every 4 hrs. - hungry or not, my workouts are extreme and my muscles require this amount of food to grow.

My lifting was great tonight. I had two full days rest and was primed and ready to go.

I did Workout A - Up 5lbs. on all weighted lifts and extended reps on exercises to failure.

Squats
Bench Press
Inverted Rows
Push Ups
Reverse Crunches

Tomorrow I'll be hitting the trail on my mtn bike and see how many laps I can do. The loop is 5 miles and I'd like to hit it 4x with my sprints on the flat portions of the loop.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

My New 7 Week Mission

All right!

I have a whole new 7 week plan that I've put together for myself. This is serious, repetitive (possibly to the point of boring), provides me with a massive amount of protein - and exactly "what I think" is going to take me to my next level.

Starting tomorrow, April 12th (which is my 38th birthday!) through May 31st, I'm starting on a 7 week mission.

I am going to eat exactly the same foods every day, heavy lift on M/W/F, cardio & sprints on T/Th and rest on Sat. & Sun.

I've entered all my foods into FitDay and have come up with the following results:

Protein: 232g
Fat: 179g
Carbs: 6g
Cals: 2500

Fat: 63%
Protein: 36%
Carbs: 1%

My daily foods are:

1. 6 cage free organic eggs scrambled in 2T of organic ghee

2. 12oz. free range chicken breast sauteed in 2T of organic virgin coconut oil

GYM

3. 12oz. grass fed ground beef or steak

4. 12oz. free range chicken breast sauteed in 2T of organic virgin coconut oil

This will NOT change, nor will I be posting daily menus.

My workouts will remain on the same schedule with my 5X5 lifting program and by the end of the 7 weeks this will add a total of 52.5 lbs. to every one of my lifts.

My cardio and sprints will be out in the woods alternating between mtn. biking and hiking - rain or shine!

I will still continue to post on my workouts, how my day went and other assorted things that come to mind - but this is it. This should, without a doubt, bring me to a whole new fitness level and mindset. I will not be weighing myself again until the end of this 7 week mission... The morning of June 1st.

It will not be easy, but I'm well prepared and pumped!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Working hard at upping my protein

I had a great workout tonight... up 5lbs. on all lifts and right on schedule! My body is absolutely beat to a bloody pulp at this point. This week has been, hands down, the toughest and most rigorous workout week I have ever done in my life. I am very much looking forward to resting the next couple of days. No weights, no sprints... nada - maybe a casual ride on my bike if I'm feeling up to it.

Workout B

Squats
Overhead Press
Deadlifts
Pull ups
Planks

Grub for the day:

1. 6 soft boiled cage free organic eggs with 2T melted ghee

2. 6 oz. grass fed burger patty and a salad with mixed organic veggies w/ evoo and fresh squeezed lemon juice

3. 3 scrambled cage free organic eggs cooked in 1T of ghee (pre workout)

Workout

4. 2 grass fed broiled lamb chops and a side of organic squash and wild mushrooms sauteed in ghee with some sea salt and fresh ground pepper

As always, a ton of water throughout the day.

So here I am, physically eating as much whole food as my body can handle while trying desperately to get my protein intake up to 200g per day. It's so hard to do with whole foods alone. My protein intake today was just under 150g. My body can't fit much more food. I'm going to try and do it slowly by adding an extra egg to my meals or an extra ounce or two of meat when I can. I think spreading my meals out further will help too. I am not going to reach the muscle gains I'm looking for if I can't get my protein up over at least 1g. per pound of body weight.

It's tough being a natural bodybuilder. Those guys who cheat and use performance enhancing drugs are doing serious damage to themselves in the years to come.

Growing my blog

Well I'd like to welcome all 3 of my blog followers - Thank you for checking out what I've got to say and appreciating it enough to stick around for more!

And... to the two people who dropped by to leave comments on a couple of my posts.

I'm new at blogging and as much as I'd like to write daily, sometimes life and it's responsibilities prevent that from happening. However, the more people dig it, the more I want to write. So... I am going to put more effort into it as I had originally intended. I also need to add tags to all my posts so people can find me and I can attract more visitors.

Thanks again, guys... Hope you all are having a good day and living life to it's fullest!

Greg :-)

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Inflation can be deadly!

Here we are in the 2nd week of April and we're having some beautiful weather in NY. As I mentioned, I've been looking forward to taking my cardio and sprint days outdoors once it warmed up and today seemed like the perfect day to start. So, I'm thinking to myself, what do I want to do?? Ah ha! I'll go get my Mtn. bike that's been sitting in my parent's shed for the past 3 yrs. (I know, shame on me) and I'll hit the trails for a nice long ride and some all out sprints.

I bought this bike, oh about 13 yrs ago lol. It's a Trek and it was a pretty good bike back in the day... I bought it the same summer I bought a brand new Jeep Wrangler because it looked hip hanging off the back of my new Jeep! Nah, I really wanted to get into riding - and I did for a while - but then... well you know how it goes. It sat for a while, then I got into it again, then parked 3 yrs ago - and haven't touched it since.

So I go to get the bike and the tires were low and needed some air but they seemed to be holding some so I thought a quick trip to the gas station down the road for air and I'd be good to go! I also needed to dust some of the cobwebs off and lube the chain.

Anyway, here I am down at the station, filling up the back tire and BAM!!! IT EXPLODED! Sounded like a gun shot and my ear seriously rang for a good minute or two. The tires had dry rotted and just blew apart on me.

So, I head down to the bike shop to get some new tires and tubes put on and unfortunately they only had one in stock so I'll have to wait until tomorrow when the shipment comes in and my bike will be ready in the afternoon (too bad it's supposed to rain tomorrow!). While I was there, I picked up a new helmet (never had a bicycle helmet but I should be wearing one), a pair of riding gloves and a water bottle to attach to the bike frame. We are looking at a nice weekend though, so I'll go and hit the trails then for my first ride of the season.

In the meantime, it's now after 5pm and getting chilly so I'm not going to start a two hour hike in the woods... I'm going to go to the gym and maybe I'll do my savage bear crawl mountain climbing routine I did the other day. Or maybe I'll try something else... I'll figure it out when I get there.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Bear Crawl Sprints!

We've got the Cybex Arc Trainer at my gym and I love this thing. It's kind of like an elliptical machine but with longer strides and even lower impact - you can use the arm bars for a full body workout or just balance yourself and do legs. I go for the full monty!

At it's lowest incline it simulates x-country skiing, then elliptical, then stair stepping, then hiking, and finally mountain climbing.

Of course, I max it out and put it on 10 (mountain climbing mode) and the resistance up to 100 (also max) and grab the handles on the heart rate sensors and slowly climb the mountain while maintaining my HR at 120bpm (fat burning zone).

I set the timer for 60 mins - and every 5 minutes, i reach forward and grab the front handles and I do a 40 second all out sprint. This raises my HR to about 173bpm at the end of the sprint. The sprints are insane though - It's similar to a bear crawl sprint up a mountain. In 60 mins, it said I burned 1365 calories but I'm not sure how accurate that is... all I know is my legs are shaking and feel like they left my body when I'm done. It's an absolutely insane workout.

Now that the weather is starting to get reasonably warm, I'm going to take my cardio out in the hilly woods and play... I can't wait!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Old school is still the best!

As I get more involved in my lifting program (and lifting heavier weight), I've noticed the difference between the types of shoes I wear and what their purposes are. For my cardio and sprinting, the running sneakers I've been wearing fit the bill perfectly. However, these are not for lifting heavy weights! Especially when doing squats and deadlifts.

This is from the website of the lifting program I'm doing:

"Lifting shoes: Shoes with air or gel filling are compressible, impairing power transfer & stability. Wear shoes with hard soles. Chuck Taylor’s, weightlifting shoes, socks or barefoot are better than running shoes."

So... I went ahead and bought myself a pair of old school Converse Chuck Taylor's - Black, of course!

These things bring back some memories from various phases of my life. When I was a kid, in the 70's, that's all I wore - then in the later 80's - mid 90's, when I got into the Grateful Dead scene, I went back to the Chucks again - I still have that pair that I wore to all those shows (about 100 GD shows and a dozen or so Jerry Garcia Band shows) and they have many miles on them. They're beat to hell because I wore them for 6 or 7 years straight - from Boston to Florida and as far west as Chicago... and many other cities and venues in between. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to see the boys out on the west coast!

Now, here I am again, with a brand new pair in 2010, used for a more specific reason then the style or comfort (which they're really not all that comfortable for an every day shoe). Although, in my opinion, they still style in a simplistic, retro sort of way. Most importantly, they'll allow me to have the stability to lift heavier and not get injured!

When I reach the point of passing my body weight in squats as a full 5X5 set not just a one time max (which shouldn't be too far off in the distance!), I'm going to treat myself to a real pair of weightlifting shoes. Adidas makes a sweet pair called the Adistar Olympic Lifting Shoes. Only $199.00 but I'm worth every cent of it :D